Open Cup Postgame: Chicago

Thursday

Jun 26, 2014 at 12:01 AMJun 26, 2014 at 4:59 AM

It was eight days earlier when Gregg Berhalter stood on the University of Akron's campus and praised his team's toughness. Despite losing two players to red cards and allowing a tying goal in the second half, the Crew found a way to grit out a 2-1 overtime win against NASL side Indy Eleven in its first U.S. Open Cup game of the year.

Wednesday night at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Ill., was a completely different story for Berhalter and the Crew. After being largely outplayed to the tune of a 1-0 halftime deficit, the Crew came to life with a pair of second-half goals and was well on its way to exorcising some Chicago Fire demons. But just when the home team looked dead and buried, the Fire tied the game in the 83rd minute, took the lead in the 92nd and put a 4-2 victory away with a goal in the 109th.

It was eight days earlier when Gregg Berhalter stood on the University of Akron's campus and praised his team's toughness. Despite losing two players to red cards and allowing a tying goal in the second half, the Crew found a way to grit out a 2-1 overtime win against NASL side Indy Eleven in its first U.S. Open Cup game of the year.

Wednesday night at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Ill., was a completely different story for Berhalter and the Crew. After being largely outplayed to the tune of a 1-0 halftime deficit, the Crew came to life with a pair of second-half goals and was well on its way to exorcising some Chicago Fire demons. But just when the home team looked dead and buried, the Fire tied the game in the 83rd minute, took the lead in the 92nd and put a 4-2 victory away with a goal in the 109th.

Making matters worse, the second and third Fire goals seemed to catch the Crew defense flat-footed and ball-watching. And then stalwart Michael Parkhurst, who has arguably been the Crew's defensive MVP, earned a straight red card for a careless challenge on Quincy Amarikwa in the 97th minute.

In a phone interview, Berhalter said the experience was overwhelmingly positive because of how the Crew installed a new system the day of the game (more on that later). However, Berhalter conceded that the way the game unraveled was disappointing.

"Probably the last 10 minutes I'm disappointed with," he said. "What I mean by that is we stopped moving. We stopped trying to play. We were trying to hold on and I think to give up a goal on a cross like that when he's the only guy in the box and we have numbers there, that's what I'm disappointed with. I attribute it to guys who haven't been in that position yet. I can go down the list of guys who were not experienced in that position and I think it was a good learning lesson."

Added midfielder Bernardo Anor, "Crazy game. We had the opportunity to close out the match. We should've done much better towards the end of the game."

The systemIt wasn't until the day of the game that Berhalter opted to give his players a pop quiz of sorts. Against the Fire, the Crew went with a 5-3-2 formation for the first time all season in part because Berhalter said the Crew's dearth of available players made the idea intriguing.

"I think it was a good opportunity given our personnel to try something a little bit outside the box," he said. "Its roots are from our normal system but the formation of it is different. In build-up, it looked probably identical but personnel was different. There was a midfielder back there (before) but now there were two center backs. This was a good opportunity to do that."

It took some time to click. The first half was not pretty as Chicago controlled most of the possession and took the lead, but the second half was a different story. When Jairo Arrieta came on for Justin Meram as one of the Crew's forwards, suddenly the attack looked more potent. Berhalter credited some of that to Arrieta's experience at forward and some to the fact that the players around him were growing more accustomed to the new formation.

"Justin doesn't pay forward that often and we want to get him some minutes there," Berhalter said. "By bringing Jairo in we'd have a quality sub who was ready to go. Jairo is a natural forward. His movement was good today. I was pleased with his play but I also think the guys had it more figured out so it was easy for him to play in that second half."

Ben Speas, who was one of the two forwards, said the system was not much different than how the Crew has been instructed to play.

"I thought it said a lot about the team," he said. "We learned about it today. It wasn't all that much different. We practiced it a little bit as the year went on but we didn't know we were going to do it today. I think it just shows if one formation isn't working we can change. As the game went on we figured it out with two forwards up top. Unfortunate towards the end there. We really gave it a good effort."

Added Anor, "It's a transition game pretty much. Having five in the back we knew Chicago likes one of the guys to play pretty deep and get the ball. One of the three center backs was to release his man and come help us in the middle so by the time we win the ball we've got to push the outside backs up. We've got to do a better job of doing that. Working on it, we can pull it off."

AvailableThe Crew dressed a total of 15 players for the game including MLS pool goalkeeper Daniel Withrow. First-round draft pick Ben Sweat made his first-team debut and recorded an assist on Arrieta's fantastic bicycle kick that tied the game.

"I thought he played well," Berhalter said. "He had a game where he had to go through a lot of things. He had some good stages and some rough stages but overall I was happy."

Speas said he saw no nerves from Sweat.

"We were all happy for Ben in his debut," he said. "I thought he did great. Tough game, MLS opponent, so that's what he's going to see. I thought everyone stepped right in. I thought we performed the game plan well for about 85 minutes."

Kevan George also made his first first-team appearance of the season.

Vice captain Wil Trapp came on as a substitute in his first action since May 24. The plan was to get him about 20 minutes of action, but overtime forced Trapp into an extended appearance.

"How would we push him in this game?" Berhalter said. "We felt like this was probably a good thing to try and give him 20 minutes in the game. Unfortunately it ended up being 50. Those are things you can't control.

"He was good. Obviously it was a little bit cagey with the amount of minutes he had to play. We were hoping for less, but he's fit and it was a good exercise for him."

Josh Williams was a surprise scratch from the list of available players. Berhalter said he has a slight groin strain.

Seeing redParkhurst has played 129 MLS games without earning a red card, but he saw one after a hard challenge in the 97th minute. It was an uncharacteristic display of frustration from the Crew's captain, and although he wasn't pleased with it Berhalter said he liked seeing a new side of Parkhurst.

"It was interesting," Berhalter said. "I hadn't seen that form Michael and I think that can be a good thing in terms of the aggression. Obviously he needs to control it but I like that fire. I don't like that reaction, but I like the fire in him. He got fouled before that. It was a clear yellow, a guy grabs him from behind and he showed some frustration.

"I don't think it's a good example for the group, but I like the fire in him."

ajardy@dispatch.com@AdamJardy

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